Liability: Anesthesiologist's Alleged Failure to Review and Report Abnormal Preoperative Lab Results May Be Proximate Cause of Patient's Surgical Death, Florida Supreme Court Holds

​Florida's highest court held that an anesthesiologist's alleged negligent performance of a preanesthesia evaluation and negligence in clearing the patient for surgery may be considered the proximate cause of a patient's death. The patient exsanguinated during the surgery and died of a heart attack.

According to the factual allegations in the lawsuit, the patient's primary care physician referred the patient to a neurosurgeon for further evaluation of a tumor on the back of her head. The neurosurgeon did not order a biopsy, believing the tumor was an osteosarcoma. Imaging studies showed the tumor had invaded the patient's skull and might soon start to press on her brain. He recommended immediate surgery to debulk some of the tumor's mass...